Finding wine and oyster heaven in Languedoc

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I’ve eaten oysters all over the globe, from Loch Fyne in Scotland to a hawker stall in Bangkok and Bentley’s in London, where chef Richard Corrigan expertly shucked half a dozen of Carlingford’s best and served them with a glass of sancerre.

But nothing prepared me for eating oyster and steak tartare paired with pinot noir on the terrace of Château St Pierre de Serjac in the beautiful Languedoc-Roussillon countryside.

The oysters were sourced just 20 miles away at Tarbouriech. Accessed by a narrow, single-track road flanked by vineyards, the oyster farm and bar that overlooks Étang de Thau (a saltwater lagoon set between the port cities of Sète and Agde) feels remote, idyllic and peaceful and yet is a 45-minute drive from Montpellier airport.

On a lunchtime in early autumn, the sun beating down on the wooden terrace set with tables made from old wine barrels, it was the perfect setting for a mollusc feast.

Our appetiser came in the form of a barge tour of the farm. There was an eerie quality about the simple metal frames that dot the water and echo with baleful screeches and cries. But there was nothing supernatural going on, just a simple yet brilliant bit of technological innovation.

Patented in 2006, Marée Solaire (solar tide) is a system of cords suspended from metal poles, each connected to a motor. The oysters are cemented to the cords by hand (110-130 oysters per cord, with 1,250 cords on each of Tarbouriech’s 100 oyster beds; that’s a lot of oysters, although about 50 per cent are lost due to natural mortality) and at the press of a virtual button on an iPad, the poles rotate, emitting that ghostly wail as they turn, raising or lowering the oysters in and out of the water.

The port of Sète Credit:
istock

“A wild oyster would sit on a rock and go in and out of the water because of waves and tides. We reproduce that natural habitat as much as we can,” explains our guide, who tells us that only after three years of daily dipping are the oysters ready to be harvested. “The time they are out of the water they very firmly close their shell to retain water inside the shell, so every single day they do a little bit of muscle training which makes the texture a lot more fleshy.”

Back on dry land, platters of the oysters arrived on ice, accompanied by glasses of Picpoul de Pinet, made at Domaine de Morin-Langaran, just three miles from where we sat; the floral, citric notes a perfect balance to the refined salty sweetness of the oysters that were big enough to almost fill the palm of my hand.

Château St Pierre de SerjacCredit:
Gilles Coulon

But even this picture postcard scene was topped by that extraordinary meal at Château St Pierre de Serjac. It was harvest time when we arrived at the stunning 200-acre estate, and we could see the mechanical grape harvesters at work in the surrounding fields from our luxury room that retained the château’s 19th-century elegance with its crystal chandelier, gilt mirrors and rolltop bathtub.

As a joint venture between Irish hoteliers Karl and Anita O’Hanlon and winemaker Laurent Bonfils – who also run the nearby Château Les Carrasses and are opening a third Languedoc property, Château Capitoul, in early 2020 – Serjac was the ideal venue to explore the wine-matching possibilities for oysters.

The subtle red fruit notes of that ruby red pinot noir, made with grapes from the limestone clay soil of Domaine de Cibadiès, just west of Béziers, was a perfect match for the rump steak and married well with the assertive briny maritime flavours of the oysters.

View of the Mediterranean in Narbonne, FranceCredit:
istock

Equally successful was the combination of lightly poached oysters served with monkfish, lemon caviar, artichokes and peppers paired with Château Capitoul Rocaille from La Clape in Narbonne’s Regional Natural Park, where there are views of the Mediterranean from the vineyards. Made with five different grape varieties including the local bourboulenc, its rich aromatic complexity coped well with the multifaceted dish.

Foodie lore says “what grows together goes together”, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example of that than the oysters and wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon. And the best thing is that to enjoy them, all you really need to do is open them up and get them down your neck.